NEW year, fresh start - that is Paul James’s motto for Guildford Heat after they were beaten in the BBL Cup semi-finals this week.

Overcoming Plymouth Raiders had always looked unlikely after losing 80-73 in Sunday’s first leg at Spectrum.

But when Heat led Wednesday’s return at the Pavilions by 10 points in the third quarter, inspired by Keonta Howell’s 19 points, an upset still looked possible.

A 17-4 streak by Raiders in the final 10 minutes was enough to see off Heat as Andrew Lasker finished with a 26-point haul.

“After finishing behind on Sunday we needed a gameplan to get us through and it was working very well for three-quarters of the match,” said coach James.

“That 10-point lead would have done the job for us but we couldn’t support Keonta, Mike Martin and EJ Harrison well enough. It was a very frustrating night in a very stop-go season for us.

“There have been so many games where we were close to winning but haven’t managed to close them out.”

Only four wins in nine matches also sees Heat lingering in the bottom half of the BBL Championship, James adding: “It’s not surprised me because we had a major rebuild of our squad. The stop-start nature of our season has been another factor.”

But he is confident though that it will all change once the New Year dawns, explaining: “We’re going to be playing twice a week from then on and that gives you a great chance to get into a rhythm. That’s even more important when you have players still getting used to playing with each other.

“We’re well within reach of the play-offs and I believe that once we spark we’ll be heading in that direction.”

James admitted that the seven-point deficit on the first leg might have been worse, Raiders showing their capacity for a third-quarter charge with an 11-3 burst plus another 10-5 run near the end.